Horror has always been a popular genre for any medium whether it be literature, cinema, or in this case – video games. Artists and game designers, through electronic media, have the ability of placing their audience directly into their world and, instead of being a simple passenger, they drive the horror forward in a way that no other form of media can copy. Infliction: Extended Cut, by developer Caustic Reality and publisher Blowfish Studios, is a title that throws you right in the madhouse. The only way out: Finish the game.
Story
Some Spoilers…
Infliction: Extended Cut follows the story of a man forced to relive the murder of his wife. Everything starts off as they usually do: his wife left her boarding passes at home and has asked him to retrieve them. Upon arriving at the home you move from room to room until you find the passes. This is when things begin to get weird. A haunting presence tells you to run like hell and, just as you think you escaped the home, you crash your car into a nearby tree. You wake up moments later, but to your horror and confusion, you’ve returned to the home. You soon realize that your wife is dead. You are trapped in a spiraling nightmare. Your only escape is to live through the tragedy that happened within the home, look for clues on the cause of your wife’s murder, and cleanse her spirit from this mortal world. I won’t spoil too much, but this story has a healthy dose of plot twists and surprises that anyone would enjoy.
Gameplay & Mechanics
Infliction: Extended Cut is a first-person horror-mystery that has you moving through a haunted suburban home looking for clues on how to cleanse the haunting spirit from this realm. Operating your character is easy and responsive, though you may have to play around with the look sensitivity to make camera movement more comfortable. You can interact with almost everything in the game. Selecting an item will pull it closer towards you. Rotating items allows you a 180 degree view, which is useful for finding codes and numbers on the backs of old polaroids. While I would have enjoyed a 360 view of objects, it wasn’t necessary to progress through the story. While you can pick up and inspect almost anything you can see, critically important items will glow or flash, allowing you to find what you need in order to move forward. Instead of a traditional tutorial, Infliction: Extended Cut offers you information as you need it. I never felt bogged down with a bunch of tooltips early on and forgetting them when they actually mattered. Tooltips and tutorials popped up for each specific mechanic as it was needed and, helpfully, stored within the options menu if I ever needed to see them again.
“Dying” in Infliction: Extended Cut is also an interesting mechanic in itself. As you move through the various stages of the game you will be constantly harassed by the vengeful spirit. She torments you so much that, eventually, you realize that her “killing” you means that you’ve actually advanced the narrative. It created an interesting Pavlovian response where I would actively seek the ghost out knowing that the punishment of meeting her was actually a reward. There are times, however, where dying doesn’t equal advancement. In those cases you reawaken in another part of the house without losing any progress.
Aesthetics & Sound
The sounds of Infliction: Extended Cut are absolutely terror-inducing. As a fan of the Horror Genre, I know when a jump-scare is approaching. The audio and visual cues used so often have become repetitive to me to the point where most movies and games just don’t scare me anymore. Infliction: Extended Cut is an exception. Even when the chilling music begins to play, even when the nightstand light begins to flicker, Infliction: Extended Cut still manages to somehow cause me to freeze up. I just know a jumpscare is coming, yet I still can’t shake the fear of it. There are some areas of the game where you can clearly see the objective right before you, but every hair on the back of your neck is telling you to stay away. It is truly remarkable what Caustic Reality has done with the soundwork of the game. The character models left a bit to be desired for me. While the game itself was “scary”, the ghost herself, visually, was not. She felt like the caricature of a vengeful ghostly woman. In that sense, my fear was not of her directly, but of the environments and situations I would have to deal with.
Summary
When it comes to Horror anyone can go for a cheap jumpscare. Infliction: Extended Cut goes far beyond that. Not only are you given a haunting atmosphere that chills your skin, but an engaging and interesting story to live through and experience in real time. The mechanics are smooth and simple to work, which allows you to quickly move through the content and experience the story without tedious hangups. Any fan of Horror will find a lot to enjoy with this title. Best played alone, in a dark room, with the closet door slightly cracked.
Check Out the Infliction: Extended Cut Trailer:
Infliction: Extended Cut will be available for Nintendo Switch for $19.99 via the eShop on July 2, 2020.
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Nintendo Switch Review
As the (self-proclaimed) King of Casuals, I'm always seeking out new titles to play and experience across all platforms. Eventually, I have ambitions to take the many different styles of this medium to create titles that will wow the masses in fresh, innovative ways.
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